Andhra Pradesh Food Security Rules, 2017

1. Short title and Commencement:
These rules may be called the Andhra Pradesh Food Security Rules, 2017.
2. Definitions
(1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires –
(a) “Act means the National Food Security Act, 2013 [No. 20 of 2013];
(b) “Commission” means State Food Commission constituted for the State of Andhra Pradesh under sub-rule (1) of rule 7 read with section 16 of the Act;
(c) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Civil Supplies of the Government of Andhra Pradesh;
(d) “entitled person” means a person belonging to eligible households identified as such under the Act by the State Government and in possession of a valid ration card and includes beneficiaries identified for provision of Supplementary Nutrition;
(e) “Household” means a nuclear family comprising mother, father and their children. Dependent parent, single women which includes widow, abandoned, separated, divorced or unmarried woman over age of 35 years with or without their dependent children, disabled with or without their dependent children, even if they have a common roof or hearth will be treated as a separate household for the purpose of this Act and Rules;
(f) “Social Audit facilitators” means the Resource Persons identified and trained by the Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency, SSAATAndhra Pradesh or any agency identified for the purpose who will facilitate the Social Audit;
(g) “Social Audit Gram Sabha” refers to the periodic assemblies of the Gram Sabha for Social Audit. No Social Audit Gram Sabha shall restrict participation of its members who has an opinion to offer or make a contribution in any way as long as they adhere to the principles of Social Audit;
(h) “Chronic disease” means which are long-lasting condition that can be controlled but not cured and leading to cause death and permanent disability i.e. coronary heart disease, stroke, breast, cervical and lung cancer; HIV/AIDS.

(2) “Words” and “Expressions” used but not defined in this rules shall have the same meaning assigned to them in the Act and rules thereof and in the orders issued under the Essential Commodities Act 1955.

3. Identification of eligible households:
(1) The state government shall, within a period not exceeding three months from the publication of notification of the rules, identify, in accordance with the exclusion and priority criteria specified in sub rule (2) :-
(a) the households which are to be provided monthly ration of food grains under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY) as a right, in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the said scheme;
(b) the priority households in which all the members of the household are to be provided monthly ration of food grains as per Section 3(1) of the Act, under Targeted Public Distribution System(TPDS) as a right; and
(c) the individuals to be provided with supplementary nutrition and cash entitlements as per sections 4,5 and 6 of the Act.
(2)(a) The government shall accord priority to the following category of households in identifying the eligible households under Antyodaya Anna Yojana subject to the limit approved by the Government of India , –
(i) All Particularly Vulnerable Tribal/Nomadic and De-notified Tribal households
(ii) Widows or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence
(iii) Households of women victims of trafficking, rape and violence against women under the Nirbhaya Act.
(iv) Households of victims of atrocities under SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
(v) Terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or
(vi) Urban and Rural Homeless destitutes and beggars.
(vii) Leprosy Affected persons, HIV Positive patients / families , families of deceased due to starvation and families threatened by Starvation Deaths,
(viii) Persons freed from bonded labour.

(2) (b) Landless agriculture labourers and other unorganized workers as identified under Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008
2 (c) The government shall apply the following exclusion criteria in identifying the Priority Households under Targeted Public Distribution System.

In Rural area :

(i) Households having land more than 10 Acres shall be excluded and in Ananthapur district, this limit will be up to 20.00 Acres

(ii) Households having any member as government employee, not being a contract employee of the government, shall be excluded

(iii) Households having any member as Income Tax assessee

(iv) Households having own motorized four wheeler but not used as taxi

(v) Household having own or rented house with monthly electricity consumption of more than 200 units of residential category

In Urban area:

(i) Household having own house of more than 750 Sq. Ft. in Urban Areas (other than Government housing scheme)

(ii) Households having any member as Income Tax assessee

(iii) Households having own motorized four wheeler but not used as taxi

(iv) Household having own or rented house with monthly electricity
consumption of more than 200 units of residential category

(v) Households having any member as government employee, not being a contract employee of the government, shall be excluded

2(d) The government after excluding the category of households mentioned above in 3(2)(c) and the households identified under 3(2)(a & b), shall pro-actively ensure that the following categories of households in each village or ward are not left out from the list of priority households under Targeted Public Distribution System.
In Rural Areas:
(i) PVTG Households
(ii) Nomadic and de-notified tribal groups
(iii) Destitute Women / Widows/Women headed households/Women
subjected to Trafficking and Joginis

(vi) Households of Active job card holders under MGNREGS.
(vii) Households of Landless agriculture workers and other unorganized workers as identified under unorganized workers social security Act, 2008.
(viii) Households of beneficiaries of social security pensions
(ix) Homeless persons, particularly women, old age persons.
(x) Transgender persons
(xi) People suffering with T.B. and other chronic diseases which are defined under sub-rule 1(h) of Rule 2 of these rules.
(xii) Homeless persons, particularly destitute women, old age persons and children

(vi) Families residing in Notified Slums
(vii) Households of all kinds of unorganized workers as identified under unorganized workers social security Act, 2008.

(viii) Households of beneficiaries of social security pensions
(ix) Homeless persons, particularly destitute women, old age persons and
children

(x) Transgender persons
(xi) People suffering with T.B. and other chronic diseases which are defined under sub-rule 1(h) of Rule 2 of these rules.

2(e) The government shall widely publicise and seek enrolment of the eligible individuals of every village and ward in their nearest Anganwadi centres for the entitlement of supplementary nutrition to pregnant women and lactating mothers and the children between the age group of 6 months to 6 years.

(3) Government shall issue necessary circular instructions/guidelines for processes required to be followed and documentary evidences required to be submitted for ascertaining the eligibility, within a period of 30 days from the publication of notification of the rules and from time to time as required.

(4) The State Government may, at such intervals or any other time, it may deem fit, re-identify the eligible households and individuals

(5) The state government may, if it deems fit, by notification, amend the criteria from time to time and require fresh survey conducted for the identification of eligible households or take a decision to continue the existing criteria in respect of Ration Cards till such time the issue of fresh guidelines is considered necessary.
(6) The state government shall publish and place the draft list of identified eligible households and excluded households and identified eligible individuals before Gram Sabha in case of rural areas and in Ward Sabhas in case of urban areas calling for objections, which shall be enquired into and disposed within 15 days of publication of the list and before the final list is prepared.
(7) On completion of each identification process, the State Government shall place in public domain, the lists of names of households identified for inclusion in priority or Antyodaya Anna Yojana category households, list of individuals identified for entitlements in the form of cash and supplementary nutrition through a website exclusively designed for the purpose and display the list at the Gram Panchayat/ Ward Office, Anganwadi centre and Ration shop prominently.
4. Reforms in Targeted Public Distribution System:
(1) For efficient operations of the Targeted Public Distribution System :
(a) The A.P. State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd or the agency authorized by the State Government shall create and maintain scientific storage facilities at State, District, and Mandal levels to accommodate food grains required under the TPDS and other welfare schemes.
(b) Establish institutionalized licensing system to run fair price shops in accordance with the PDS (Control) Order 2015 and National Food Security Act, 2013 through Public institutions or local bodies, Self help groups, Cooperatives.
(c) Keeping in view the public interest, the State Government may replace all or any of the fair price shop dealers/ nominated retailer/hawker and entrust the distribution through a shop set up by the State Government, a State Government undertaking or a Corporation wholly owned by the State Government or a Co-operative Society for the benefit of persons belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, under a Government Scheme or local bodies and women Self help groups.
(d) To ensure transparency and accountability of distribution of essential commodities to the targeted beneficiaries, available technologies have to be utilized to achieve end-to-end computerization of PDS.
5. Internal Grievance redressal mechanism as per Section 14 of the Act:
(1) Any person can record/submit his/her grievance regarding any aspect of implementation of the Act or upon violation or denial of his/her right in any of the following manner,
(a) Submission of grievance in person or through post in writing and obtaining acknowledgement to that effect
(b) Submission of grievance through web based format which generates a unique complaint number for each complaint
(c) Submission of grievance through mobile or landline either by SMS or voice call or voice mail which generates a unique complaint number for each complaint
(2) The entitlements/rights of various persons provided under the Act, the responsible authority/department for the delivery of that particular entitlement and the supervisory/nodal officer with whom the grievance can be filed on the failure of delivery of the entitlement or violation of that particular right and the appellate authority are as give under :-